OpenAI is poised to help develop what could become one of the world's largest data centers in the United Arab Emirates, significantly expanding its global AI infrastructure footprint beyond the United States.
The ChatGPT maker is expected to be a primary anchor tenant for the recently announced 5-gigawatt data center campus in Abu Dhabi, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. While OpenAI's participation is not yet finalized, a formal announcement may come soon.
The massive facility will be built by G42, an Abu Dhabi-based AI company chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's national security advisor and brother of the country's ruler. When completed, the campus will span an astonishing 10 square miles—larger than Monaco—and consume power equivalent to five nuclear reactors, dwarfing any existing AI infrastructure announced by OpenAI or its competitors.
This project follows a significant agreement signed between the UAE and the United States on May 15, 2025, during President Donald Trump's first state visit abroad in his second term. The agreement establishes what officials describe as the largest AI campus outside the U.S. The first phase will include a 1-gigawatt compute cluster, with plans to eventually reach the full 5-gigawatt capacity.
Other major U.S. tech companies are also involved in the project, dubbed "UAE Stargate." Nvidia will supply hardware with its latest Blackwell GB300 systems, while Oracle and Cisco are also supporting the initiative. The data center will collaborate with the U.S. Stargate project announced by President Trump shortly after his January 2025 inauguration.
The UAE data center represents a strategic expansion for OpenAI, which has maintained close ties with the Gulf nation since 2023 when it partnered with G42. That same year, OpenAI's major backer Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in G42. More recently, MGX, an investment vehicle overseen by an Emirati royal family member, participated in an OpenAI funding round and plans to contribute to the company's Stargate AI infrastructure initiative.
This development underscores the growing significance of the Middle East in global technology infrastructure and marks a major milestone in OpenAI's international expansion strategy. It also reflects the company's broader initiative, "OpenAI for Countries," launched earlier this month to build local infrastructure needed to better serve international AI customers.